Four days of fun!

Sleep I did. I feel like my body was hit by a truck, I'm so tight. I probably fell asleep and stayed in one position. That may have been the best night's rest I've gotten thusfar. Now I'm writing this post while staring out my window, killing time to see if those grey clouds are going to split open. If so, I'm not running. It's too cold to run in the rain. Crossing my fingers that they'll pass! Anyway, let me tell you about my weekend. Yesterday was a bank holiday in Ireland, so no classes. Instead, we took a little trip. But let me start from the beginning.

Friday: Carolin started off the evening by asking if I could cut her bangs before we went out. Sure, no prob. We gabbed about what had happened in the past two days, future plans, vacations, and of COURSE, boys. :) Whatever. Then we met up with Stephanie in town and walked to the Quay's, our quickly-becoming favorite Friday night pub. This excellent band plays there at 10:30 every week, and last week we introduced them to Stephan. Well, Stephan's girlfriend Anika just happened to be here this Friday, and he wanted to bring her. The five of us grabbed a table and hung out for a while, then eventually walked upstairs to enjoy the tunes. And by walked, I mean we pushed our way through a mass of people and claimed our spot on the banister. We stayed until 11:30, I knew I'd be having a long weekend and I wanted to get some sleep, and the girls decided to just come with me. End of scene 1.

Saturday: IT RAINED ALL DAY. And not like the soft misty rainy, but a persistent heavy rain that blew horizontal because of the wind. I woke up early and went to breakfast with Stephanie, where we had a beautiful conversation about life, troubles, and God. The coffee was a bonus, too. Neither of us wanted to do much, so we watched movies all afternoon. In the evening, we went to the Great Irish Beer Festival with my neighbors, Darin and Mike. We had a blast. The 'festival' was a big venue where people could walk around at their leisure, sampling beers and ales from around the world. Grab a beer, grab some food, and grab a seat on the floor. The four of us did nothing more than hang out on our floor spot. We stayed until the festival was over, and then walked back into the city center. No one really wanted to go home yet, so we found another bar with live music and stayed there until we lost interest. THEN Darin was hardcore about getting late-night crepes from this place we discovered when we were in town last week. Actually, I knew it was there, but he had never had a crepe before in his life. Poor guy. Anyway, this creperie was open late, and we all got food and made our way home, but not before stopping to play at the public playground! Haha. That was my fault, admittedly, but I couldn't help myself- I am forever a kid at heart.

Sunday: Unbeknownst to me, Sunday was the end of daylight-savings time in greater Europe. I woke up early to get ready to catch the 7:05 am bus to the jazz festival in Cork, only to find out from my computer's clock that I was up an hour too early. After a stilted effort to tell the rest of my traveling party about our error, we all eventually got the bus at the correct time. Going with me were Darin, Derek and Nick M (the last two are from WCU). A bunch of our friends were already in Cork, including Stephen, and we would meet them there. After a four hour ride, we arrived to a sunny day in the southern city. We grabbed a bite to eat and then went to listen to, duh, jazz music at what I can only assume is some kind of conference center. I was enthralled. The first big band I listened to played four of my favorite songs right off the bat, and two of them were sung by a guy who sounded like Michael Buble. In love. After enjoying jazz, Darin, Derek, Nick M and I took a bus to our B&B; we hadn't checked in yet. We hiked literally off the beaten path to a quaint yellow house tucked into the landscape. The reservation was for three people, but Darin decided to come too, so Derek and Nick M asked if they could accomodate us. After an initial "no," they agreed to put a mattress on the floor. The couple who owned the B&B were so good to us. The guys crashed out for a little while; I went downstairs to write and read. Then David, one of the owners, took us in his cab back into town. Shortly after, we ate dinner and found Brett and Nick B (my other neighbor) and headed to hear more music. It wasn't a jazz band this time, but they were still good, and good enough for us to go back later to hear their second set. In between, we walked to the bar across the street where another jazz band was playing upstairs. Throughout the night, the rest of our friends came and went, and new friends joined the group. Since we started early, the evening was long and full of interesting people, drama, music, dancing, conversations, and me giving the guys a play-by-play on girl body language. Hilarious. We caught a cab back to our B&B, hoping to get some sleep.

Monday: We woke up and ate a home-cooked breakfast at our B&B, which was amazing. After taking turns for the shower, we checked out and walked to Blarney, where we met 7 of our friends. On the agenda for the day was a tour of Blarney castle and kissing the Blarney stone, but no one planned on how much fun we were going to have in process. We explored every nook and cranny of that castle (there were plenty), took a million pictures, climbed to the very top of the castle, and goofed off. Kissing the stone was an interesting experience. We quipped about getting herpes or other diseases from the stone, but when it came to it, we all leaned backwards to kiss it in hopes of receiving the famed gift of eloquence said to be rewarded to those whose lips touch the stone. Let me tell you, though, the man who stands there moves everyone along so fast, we barely had time to snap pictures. After that, we walked the rest of the castle, and then set out to walk the grounds. Blarney castle has a beautiful landscape around it, including a lake, gardens, something like a lagoon, caves (I don't know why, but they were very muddy), and the Rock Close, an 'enchanted' area of the castle grounds. More pictures, more exploring, more fun. Highlights were the wishing steps, the witch's kitchen, and the faerie grove. In the places where you could leave money for wishes, we observed coins from all over the world, including quite a few American pennies and nickels. After we killed all morning and early afternoon at the castle, we went back into Cork for lunch and to catch the bus home. Our bus was very crowded, but we all managed to find and keep our seats. After another four hours, we were back in Galway!

Of course, I can never accurately convey how much fun we had, and most of the fun stemmed from random circumstances or the people I was with. There are stories upon stories from the trip, and if you want to hear more, just let me know!